Volume one spans her eighth year through age 17; reflections on family, friendship, education, a stint at survival camp and coming of age.
Title: Minor
Series: The Journals of Meghan McDonnell
Author: Meghan McDonnell
Release Date: 18th December 2015
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Minor is the first installment of the personal journals in which, for over 20 years, writer Meghan McDonnell has chronicled her life beginning at age eight through present day. With searing candor and tenderness, her musings on daily life and observations of family, social and romantic relationships coalesce in a commentary on growing up, facing down passion and fear, and American life in the 21st century. Wide in scope and vivid in detail, her journals are her confessional love letter to the world. Join her on a fearless, vulnerable, sometimes painful and quixotic, but always honest journey, also known as the human experience. Readers who love Cheryl Strayed or Karl Ove Knausgaard will enjoy this author.
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Volume two of this addictive and vicarious series spans her freshman year of college, first love, a trip to Australia, and navigating young adulthood, living on her own among peers.
Title: Novice
Series: The Journals Of Meghan McConnell
Author: Meghan McDonnell
Release Date: 17th December 2015
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Novice is the second installment of the personal journals in which, for over 20 years, writer Meghan McDonnell has chronicled her life beginning at age eight through present day. With searing candor and tenderness, her musings on daily life and observations of family, social and romantic relationships coalesce in a commentary on challenges, facing down passion and fear, and American life in the 21st century. Wide in scope and vivid in detail, her journals are her confessional love letter to the world. Join her on a fearless, vulnerable, sometimes painful and quixotic, but always honest journey, also known as the human experience.Readers who love Cheryl Strayed or Karl Ove Knausgaard will enjoy this author.
Goodreads Link
PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Volume three of this addictive and vicarious series spans her search for identity, grappling with life choices and heart ache, and plans for travel to Europe.
Title: Limbo
Series: The Journals Of Meghan McDonnell
Author: Meghan McDonnell
Release Date: 17th December 2015
BLURB from Goodreads
Limbo is the third installment of the personal journals in which, for over 20 years, writer Meghan McDonnell has chronicled her life beginning at age eight through present day. With searing candor and tenderness, her musings on daily life and observations of family, social and romantic relationships coalesce in a commentary on challenges, facing down passion and fear, and American life in the 21st century. Wide in scope and vivid in detail, her journals are her confessional love letter to the world. Join her on a fearless, vulnerable, sometimes painful and quixotic, but always honest journey, also known as the human experience.Readers who love Cheryl Strayed or Karl Ove Knausgaard will enjoy this author.
Goodreads Link
PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon US
Amazon UK
GUEST POST
My Writing Process
by
Meghan McDonnell
When I was eight years old, I abandoned drawing and painting
in favor of writing. I’m 36 now and in the intervening 28 years, my writing
process has changed very little. I pick up a pen and my journal and I sit down to
write. I don’t schedule it. I intuitively know when I need to. It tugs at me. Often,
I will write every day for a two-week spell, then go days without it. I get an
itch for it when it’s been longer than three days. If I go too long, irritation
builds up in me and I have even gotten physically ill from not writing. I have
never felt like writing is a choice or a hobby. It’s more like a woman who is
always with me, sometimes whispering and gentle, sometimes forceful and abrupt.
She demands that I put my life down on paper.
My writing habits are seasonal and cyclical. In winter, I
write in the mornings. In summer, I like to write at night. Sometimes, the
busier I am, the more I feel compelled to write. The tension of not being able
to whenever I want to due to work, social events, and other commitments makes
me crave it more. I drink tea or coffee and water when I write in the mornings
and I sip beer or wine when I write at night. I’ve never experienced writers’
block. Everyday minutiae, soulful questions about the human condition, and
everything in between inspire me to put pen to paper. I constantly read, listen
to music and NPR shows or podcasts, and watch films and television shows, each
of which give me more fodder for thought and writing.
Many writers have said that they don’t like writing itself,
but that they like having written. I see it quite differently. I like the
writing itself. It is healing, confessional, cathartic, and therapeutic. It’s
an opportunity to work out in myself what I can’t control in my life. It allows
me to process my external and internal experiences: conversations,
observations, interactions, and my own inner world. I forget myself when I
write, leaving the world behind until I am in an almost meditative state, given
over to a mysterious sea where I can swim for a while.
While the writing itself is not a choice, publishing my work
was and is. It’s an experiment. I have to believe readers are out there who
want to read an ongoing account of what goes on inside an ordinary woman’s mind
and heart. I pray that my words are of use to people: to comfort, entertain,
and relieve them. The journals are simply a world for someone to walk into
briefly, have a look around, reflect and relate, and then get on with their
life. I have feared that this is self-indulgent, narcissistic navel gazing, but
a deeper purpose spurs me and I refuse to give in to insecurity or ambivalence.
I must keep working at this calling. I have at least 25 more volumes to type,
edit, and publish.
A new avenue I’m just now getting acquainted with and
overcoming anxiety about is blogging and writing articles for online platforms
such as Medium and Reddit. Working on short-form pieces is new for me and I’m
excited about the whole process. It’s an opportunity to get more of my writing
in to the world, let more readers know about the journals, and for me to
interact with awesome people.
The publishing process taps on an entirely different part of
my brain and requires far more discipline than writing. I have lists, tasks, and
self-appointed deadlines to keep me on track. I appreciate the contrast between
the emotionality of writing and the practicality of publishing. When I get
tired of working in one realm, I switch back to the other. I am never bored.
Between writing in my journal, typing the manuscripts for each volume, editing,
designing covers, researching marketing, and reaching out
to potential readers, I have my work cut out for me and it suits me to a T. It
only took me my entire adult life to get here and while it isn’t always easy, I
am blessed and grateful.
I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life. I love all
aspects of being a writer, even when it’s challenging, emotionally draining,
and the road is long. I get to experience the freedom and power of the written
word, be a romantic dreamer, and let out the parts of me that thrive on being
an organized taskmaster. I get to share who I am with the world and interact
with warm, generous, insightful people. I get to live a life I love.
